You are here

18 APRIL 2014, VOLUME 15, ISSUE 16

Media Coverage

The leader of the nation's largest community HIV/AIDS health care organization stands by sharp words he had for a drug that has been approved for its potential to prevent the transmission of HIV - comments that some doctors and activists say are "irresponsible" and even led to a petition demanding his resignation.

Five of the country's top scholars and scientists have been named winners of the 2014 Killam Prize, created to honour Canadians who have made contributions to research that has had far-reaching national and international impact. Winners of the annual Killam Prize, administered by the Canada Council of the Arts, each receive $100,000. The awards were endowed by Dorothy Killam in memory of her late husband, Canadian industrialist Izaak Walton Killam.

Pope Francis has praised church workers in Africa who promote chastity as a key way to prevent the spread of HIV. Francis was speaking Monday at the Vatican to bishops from Tanzania.

Many non-Catholic health care workers advocate condoms as an important weapon to fight the spread of the HIV virus that causes AIDS. The Vatican opposes condom use because church teaching forbids contraception.

CROI 2014, held in chilly Boston, again brought together international researchers studying the pathogenesis, prevention, treatment, and cure of HIV and associated infections. The past years have seen tremendous enthusiasm regarding new HIV prevention and treatment strategies, which might signal a radical change in the global impact of the epidemic. As in previous years, oral sessions were recorded and are available online (www.croi2014.org; www.croiwebcasts.org), along with full copies of abstracts.

Following a week that saw a US funded program in Uganda closed by the country's Anti-Homosexuality Law, leaders of organizations representing physicians and researchers in HIV responses worldwide wrote to US Global AIDS Coordinator Ambassador Deborah Birx today stressing that efforts to get life-saving treatment to Ugandans living with HIV must continue.

The latest national HIV survey shows plummeting condom use, increases in multiple concurrent partnerships and more boys having sex younger. Has South Africa gotten complacent about HIV? HIV treatment has gotten better and simpler. Now, many people use just one pill a day to control their HIV - has this helped make HIV less scary?....

Fifteen years ago, basic AIDS drugs cost more than $10,000 per person per year. Many of the people who needed them most -- especially those living in poor countries -- couldn't pay. Millions died before public health advocates persuaded the U.S. and other governments to act -- not because needed medicine didn't exist, but because those who needed it couldn't afford it.

Silence is golden, it is said. But not for Constance Nansamba (not real name) from Uganda, who paid a dear price for keeping silent about being HIV positive and pregnant at age 18. "I was terrified. I ran away from my brother's home. I could not follow the PMTCT [prevention of mother-to-child transmission] guidelines, so the baby is HIV positive," she told IPS....Nansamba, now 20, has found the courage to tell her story to help others.

Network of Journalists Living with HIV (JONEHA) has urged media practitioners to refrain from stigma and discrimination to create a conducive working environment for their colleagues living with (HIV). JONEHA Board Member Rev. Patrick Semphere made the call in his opening speech of a-two-day media practitioners' workshop on media's role in demonstrating national response to HIV/AIDS.

April 7, 2014

Malawi News Agency

Published Research

Each year around 2,000-2,500 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer in England, the most common cancer in women under 35. Infection with high-risk human papillomavirus (HR HPV) types 16 and 18 is responsible for around 70-80% of cervical cancers. A study conducted by Public Health England and presented at the Society for General Microbiology's Annual Conference shows a reduction in these two HR HPV types -- which are included in the HPV vaccines used -- in sexually active young women in England.

Young women in sub-Saharan Africa are disproportionately affected by HIV, making the development of women initiated and controlled methods of prevention, including microbicides, a priority. Adherence is pivotal to microbicide efficacy and partner related factors are known to impact adherence. An analysis of disclosure of gel use to sexual partners and adherence in CAPRISA 004 women was conducted to better understand this relationship.

Objective: To delineate the association between baseline socioeconomic status (SES) indicators and mortality and lost to follow-up (LTFU) in a cohort of HIV-infected individuals enrolled in antiretroviral therapy (ART) in urban Uganda.

Only half of people who were referred to HIV clinics for follow-up after presenting to the ED for nonoccupational post-exposure prophylaxis actually attended the clinic for care, researchers from the University of Toronto and Harvard University have found. In addition, fewer than half of those who visited the HIV clinic had documented completion of the 28-day course of antiretroviral therapy, according to the report in Clinical Infectious Diseases.

Remarkable progress has been made regarding the different types of antibodies that have potential to block HIV-1 antibodies that have potential to block HIC-1 acquisition, and therefore all of these different antibodies are of great interest for HIV-1 vaccine development....This edition of Current Opinion in HIC and AIDS presents a collection of articles that reflect a recent shift in the field toward a more balanced focus on multiple types of antibodies that are desirable to elicit with vaccines....

Background & objectives: Providing sexually transmitted infection (STI) services to female sex workers (FSWs) in rural and resource constrained settings is a challenge. This paper describes an approach to address this challenge through a partnership with government health facilities, and examines the effect of this partnership on the utilization of STI services by FSWs in Andhra Pradesh, India.

Tracking development assistance for health for low- and middle-income countries gives policy makers information about spending patterns and potential improvements in resource allocation. We tracked the flows of development assistance and explored the relationship between national income, disease burden, and assistance.

Objective: To measure knowledge and awareness of human papillomavirus (HPV) testing in the USA, the UK and Australia.

Methods: Participants in the USA, UK and Australia completed an anonymous web-based survey measuring awareness and knowledge of HPV (n=2409). We report analyses on a subsample of 1473 men and women in the USA (n=617), UK (n=404) and Australia (n=452) who had heard of HPV and completed questions about HPV testing.

It's the Truvada conundrum: A drug hailed as a lifesaver for many people infected by HIV is at the heart of a rancorous debate among gay men, AIDS activists and health professionals over its potential for protecting uninfected men who engage in gay sex without using condoms.

Announcements

HIV R4P is the world's first global scientific meeting dedicated exclusively to biomedical HIV prevention research. The conference is expected to bring 1,200 to 1,500 research, program development and policy leaders to Cape Town, South Africa, 28-31 October 2014. Preliminary program at: http://hivr4p.org/program/scientific-program.

April 10, 2014

Weekly NewsDigest

The Weekly NewsDigest is a compilation of HIV prevention research media coverage and relevant science in peer-reviewed journals; material on other reproductive health issues; and matters of policy and politics relevant to HIV prevention research, development and advocacy.

Its purpose is to raise awareness around the range of opinions and information about HIV prevention research disseminated in the press and scientific journals and provide a neutral, objective basis for decision-making and evidence-based advocacy.

Recent Blog Posts

The Black lives of AVAC’s staff, partners and friends matter. The Black lives of those who live near our office in Harlem matter. The Black lives of those on the streets across the United States and around the world calling for justice and equity matter. It’s more important than ever to say these fundamental truths.

The AVAC team is united in sorrow and anger at the inequities that are being laid bare in America today. We advocate every day for an equitable HIV response, but we know that we can’t stop there. We stand with those who are calling for a more just and equitable world.

We have the benefit of history to provide a clear vision of what must happen with COVID-19. We stand on the shoulders of giants in the fight against HIV who never took “no” for an answer: advocates who demanded a vaccine because they knew their lives depended on it. At the same time, they acted as if a vaccine would never arrive, thereby accelerating the development and delivery of safe and effective treatment and prevention options.